2020 Brownlow Medal | |
---|---|
Date | 18 October 2020 |
Location | Various venues |
Hosted by | Hamish McLachlan and Jacqui Felgate |
Winner | Lachie Neale (Brisbane Lions) (31 votes) |
Television/radio coverage | |
Network | Seven Network Telstra |
The 2020 Brownlow Medal was the 93rd year the award was presented to the player adjudged the best and fairest player during the Australian Football League (AFL) home-and-away season. Lachie Neale of the Brisbane Lions was the winner, with 31 votes. [1]
Neale's tally of 31 votes from only 17 matches (1.82 per game) in the shortened 2020 season set a new record for most votes per game by a winner under the 3–2–1 voting system. Neale broke the long-standing record of Dick Reynolds, who polled 27 votes from the 15 games he played in 1937 (1.80 per game); and held the record until it was broken by Patrick Cripps in 2024. [2]
Player | Votes | |
---|---|---|
1st | Lachie Neale (Brisbane Lions) | 31 |
2nd | Travis Boak (Port Adelaide) | 21 |
=3rd | Christian Petracca (Melbourne) | 20 |
Jack Steele (St Kilda) | ||
=5th | Patrick Dangerfield (Geelong) | 15 |
Dustin Martin (Richmond) | ||
Jack Macrae (Western Bulldogs) | ||
Luke Parker (Sydney) | ||
=9th | Cameron Guthrie (Geelong) | 14 |
Clayton Oliver (Melbourne) |
*The player was ineligible to win the medal due to suspension by the AFL Tribunal during the year.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic which caused the season to be suspended for nearly three months, the regular season was reduced from 22 matches per club to 17, with each team playing each other once as well as having a bye round.
In September, it was announced that the Brownlow Medal count would be held as a virtual event, with joint functions held on the Gold Coast, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth, but not at the Crown Palladium as had been the case since 2003. [3]
The three field umpires (those umpires who control the flow of the game, as opposed to goal or boundary umpires) confer after each match and award three votes, two votes, and one vote to the players they regard as the best, second-best and third-best in the match, respectively. The votes are kept secret until the awards night, and they are read and tallied on the evening. [4]
The Charles Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal, is awarded to the Best and fairest player in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the home-and-away season, as determined by votes cast by the four officiating field umpires after each game. It is the most prestigious award for individual players in the AFL. It is also widely acknowledged as the highest individual honour in the sport of Australian rules football.
Travis Alexander Boak is a professional Australian rules footballer playing for the Port Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Boak captained the club from 2013 to 2018, and is a three-time All-Australian, dual John Cahill Medallist and three-time Showdown Medallist. He is also the club's AFL games record holder with 368 games.
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The 2008 Brownlow Medal was the 81st year the award was presented to the player adjudged the fairest and best player during the Australian Football League (AFL) home and away season. Adam Cooney of the Western Bulldogs won the medal by polling twenty-four votes during the 2008 AFL season. Pre-vote favourite, Gary Ablett and sentimental favourite, Matthew Richardson finished equal third on twenty-two votes. Cooney polled twenty-four votes, one ahead of Brisbane's Simon Black, who won the award in 2002 and was equal second in 2007.
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